Newsbytes - Internationa…ews 1983 May to 1994 June/Newsbytes - International Computing Industry News 1994 Edition - May 1983 - June 1994 - Wayzata Technologies (5045) (1994).iso/mac/Text/Mac Text/1985/V102

Text File | 1991-10-04 | 30KB | 606 lines

[***][5/7/85][***]
MICROSOFT OFFICE:
The Macintosh may get a needed kick in the pants by September if
Microsoft holds true on its promise to deliver "Excel", a
powerful spreadsheet program for a 512K Mac which will retail for
$395.  At a news conference in New York, Microsoft's Bill Gates
and Apple's Steve Jobs called "Excel" the "world's best
spreadsheet" which offers simple graphics interfaces and powerful
number-crunching capabilities.  One of the program's nicest
features is its ability to create automatic macros; the computer
records repetetive tasks and writes its own macros--no programming
is required by the user.  Observers say the program is impressive
but are guarded about Microsoft's announcement that the product's
release is a good four months away.  Meanwhile, Jobs publicly
disclosed that a 20 megabyte hard disk will be available this fall
from Apple, as well as a Mac with more than 512K.  (He's referring,
of course, to the 2 megabyte Mac which is already in the hands
of selected developers.

[***][5/7/85][***]
BLACK SHEEP OF THE FAMILY:
Apple has kicked the Mac XL out of the house, convinced its sex-changed
offspring is a dud.  Apple will halt production of the XL (formerly
the Lisa) "this summer", marking the second major failure in a year
(first it was the Apple III).  Only 60,000 Macintosh XLs were sold
in the product's two year history according to InfoCorp.  Compare
that to the investment of $70 million developing the machine.  Sad,
but true.  Savvy buyers quickly noticed the high price, slow speed
and lack of software as the Lisa's biggest drawbacks.  Meanwhile
Apple has also revealed that "a period of slower sales" is ahead.
Advertising budgets are being cut as are workers.  25 people in
a Garden Grove, California manufacturing plant lost their jobs in
March.  Another 50 will go by August 1 from Irvine, California
as Apple consolidates West Coast operations in Cupertino.

[***][5/7/85][***]
THE DARK HORSE:
Haba Systems of Van Nuys, California used the same week as the "Excel"
announcement to say shipments of its own "Quartet", an integrated
spreadsheet and word processor for 128K or 512K Macintoshes, have
started.  While not having all the features of the upcoming "Excel"
or "Jazz", "Quartet" has a nice price:  $199.95 and a promising
distributor--Softsel--which will enable the product to reach 3,000
Apple dealers throughout the U.S.  Soon to be offered by Haba is
"HabaWorks", an integrated work environment for the Mac that
includes word processing, data base, spreadsheet and communications
functions.

[***][5/7/85][***]
PROCESSED WORD NEWS:
MicroPro will offer a low-end version of its WordStar software in
mid-summer that will cost "under $200".  Ashton-Tate will "unbundle"
Framework, allowing buyers to purchase single-function programs
shortly.  Just what these individual products will look like is
uncertain but their presence does indicate further erosion of
the price barriers for users buyer software, a phenomenon in which
Software Publishing's "PFS:" series holds the lead.

[***][5/7/85][***]
VAPORWARE INVESTMENT:
Jim Edlin, famous for the world's cheapest news conference (held at
McDonald's in Palo Alto last year) says he's offering buyers of his
word processing program "Wordvision" a chance to invest in its
future.  Still operating out of his kitchen, Jim wants customers
to "subscribe" to Wordvision "PowerPacks"--namely a spelling
checker, merge-printing function and other enhancements.  Just
send your check or money order to Jim at 2335 Leavenworth St.,
Suite 103, San Francisco, Ca. 94133 or call him at 415-775-8400.
He's also still selling his ever-popular WordVision for $49.95.

[***][5/7/85][***]
PROJECT VICTORIA:
Pacific Bell is, of course, planning a test of its new voice/data
communication technology at Apple shortly.  What the world will
read here first is that this project is one SMALL PART of a major
effort code-named Project Victoria.  My source tells me that
Victoria, once perfected, will not require a modem for data
transmission to operate at speeds of up to 9600 baud.  The system
will see two voice, 1 9600 baud and 4 1200 baud channels with
simultaneous operation over one telephone line.  AT&T plans
a related project in Illinois in early 1986.  Others are struggling
to catch up but meanwhile Pacific Bell is two years and several
million in R&D ahead of them.  Plus, Pac Bell is working jointly
with NTT of Japan which is "very close" to Pac Bell's progress.

[***][5/7/85][***]
LOVE 'EM AND LEAVE 'EM:
IBM has just severed ties with Epson, the company which for the
longest time has been making the basic Personal Computer printer.
IBM would buy the printers and sell them for  higher price than
Epson's own, similar models.  Epson's consequent price-discounting
on its own line helped propel the company to a high spot in the
U.S. printer market.  But now, IBM will make its own printers;
having watched the stability of Epson's printer market, the
cautious giant has decided to do away with its former help-mate
and take on the task alone.  The first of IBM's own line is
the Proprinter, a $549 unit said to have printer quality similar
to an IBM Selectric typewriter.  Epson, meanwhile, is shaking
off its rejection by introducing six new printers at Comdex
this week.

[***][5/7/85][***]
AT RACE IS ON:
Kaypro, Corona, Zenith and Televideo have already taken the wraps
off IBM AT compatibles.  Now Compaq and Xerox have joined the fray.
Unveiled from Compaq is the Deskpro 286, a machine the company
says is 30-percent faster than IBM's AT and includes a 20-megabyte
hard drive in the $4,499 base price.  Deskpro 286's are already
being shipped to dealers in the U.S.  Xerox announced 5 (count 'em)
new computers and two laser printers.  The AT-compatible is
called the 6085 and has a basic memory of 1 million bits.  However,
it won't be out until September.  Two other computers announced
are true IBM clones, two others are word processors made by Olivetti.
The 4045 Laser CP, retailing for $4,995, is significantly lower
priced than Apple's LaserWriter, but offers fewer fonts.

[***][5/7/85][***]
MORROW'S NEWEST:
Unveiled at Comdex this week is Morrow's new Pivot II, a portable
that's supposedly able to run all IBM PC software, features a 25
line display, has a 300/1200 baud internal modem, and a RAM of
256K to 640K, depending on the model and one or two drives.  Base
cost is $2,995.  The high-end is $3,795.  Says the always outspoken
George Morrow, "Finally, you -can- take it with you," referring to
IBM functionality in a truly portable PC.  Upgrades to the new
Pivot are available to owners of the old Pivot for $1,000.  The
sleek black boxes will be shipped this month.

[***][5/7/85][***]
PUBLISHING FATES:
Advertising Age reports that ad revenue is plummeting for the
computer magazine business.  "Creative Computing" was the worst
hit, seeing ad pages drop 48%, second was "Family Computing"
with a 35% drop, "Compute" was down 24% and "InfoWorld" had
12% fewer pages of advertisements.  Meanwhile.... look for
John Dvorak to come out with his own newsletter by the end
of the month.  Called "Confidential Inside Track", it will
have the bargain-basement price of $69 for a year of monthly
issues.  Of course, Dvorak plans to be on The Source with
his commentary shortly.... look for the man who everybody loves
to hate listed in the PC menu.

[***][5/7/85][***]
WHO'S BUYING WHAT:
Dataquest seems to know.  It's survey of 20,000 households
found that more than half of those who own computers, say they
spent more than $500 for them.  "In November 1983, computers
in this price category represented only 29 percent of overall
home computer market penetration.  that number grew to 51 percent
by February of this year" says Joan Grim, Survey Researcher.
Of those who plan to buy, 27% said they were looking at Apples,
24% for IBMs and 17% were eyeing Commodores.

[***][5/7/85][***]
IN BRIEF--

THE FIRST MONTHLY FACIAL EGG AWARD goes to Michael McCarthy, news
editor for "InfoWorld" who said, "Expect the long-awaited IBM PC II
to be announced on April 30."  Either Mike needs new sources or
he's talking about 1986.  (Issue dated Apr. 29, page 13)

GREAT PRESS RELEASE AWARD goes to J. Bunker and Associates of
Mt. Eden, California who ask "Did MITS Altair, Processor Technology
or Apple sell the first personal computer?  Did Computerland
offer the first computer store franchise or was it Dick Brown
in Connecticut?  Who wrote the first BASIC package?"  Well,
the press release concludes "debate flairs" but one thing is
certain...Derek Anderson of DeskTop Broker was the first company
to allow its customers to buy and sell listed shares of stock using
their personal computers.  OK....never mind... it just caught my
attention.

OSBORNE COMPUTER CORP. says Delphi Data Systems of Mountain View,
Ca. will sell all Osborne's products and in the rest of the West,
U.S. Tech stores, in 16 markets, will sell them too.

CORPORATE DATA SCIENCES of San Jose, Ca. just signed a deal with
China to manufacture desktop computers, laser printers, floppy
drives and Winchester disks in that country.  The deal is worth
about $40 million.  Contact: PHIL MARTINEZ, PRESIDENT 408/980-
9747.

SIGNETICS CORP of Sunnyvale, Ca. and FAIRCHILD of San Jose, two
chip-makers, have collectively canned 1,200 workers.  XICOR INC.
of Milpitas, Ca. dumped 40 workers and its VP might as well be
speaking for the industry when he says his company is "in
a parking orbit."

MCGRAW-HILL is in talks with TELE-COMMUNICATIONS INC. of Colorado
regarding a joint videotex venture that would send data to
homes and small businesses via cable TV.

KODAK has received the judge's nod to acquire VERBATIM, the
Sunnyvale, Ca.-based diskette maker.  Now, Kodak just has to
sign that check for $175 million to make it the world's
largest film producer AND the world's largest floppy diskette
producer.

[***][5/7/85][***]
HACKER CRACKER:
John Maxfield, a computer security consultant from Detroit, is
working with the Secret Service and regional sheriff's departments
to crack a huge network (?) of computer hackers.  Six students
were arrested last week, according to the Milwaukee Journal, after
the Secret Service caught them using stolen credit cards to
buy loot.  Maxfield was quoted as saying more arrests will follow
in Detroit, Seattle, Los Angeles, Memphis and Chicago.  The
hackers have been sharing their credit-card info via electronic
bulletin board networks.  This one is worth watching...

[***][5/7/85][***]
LAWYERS IN LOVE:
The attorneys working for Commodore and Atari must be stashing it
away.  Let's add up the charges and countercharges as Laurie
Kretchmar of the Business Journal in San Jose did recently.
Atari is suing Commodore for patent infringement concerning its
coup d'etat of the Amiga, a programmable graphics chip and a
moveable object generator and for "nuisance" of its salaried
employees.  Commodore is suing Atari for "interfering with
contractual relations" between Commodore and the Ritz-Carlton
hotel in Chicago and for "interfering" with Commodore officials
at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas durig the January CES.  Specifically,
Commodore says Atari people tried to change all Commodore's
hotel rooms over to Atari personnel.  Somebody's practical joke?
If nothing else, all these charges are being called "jokes" by
the opposite sides.  And the attorneys must be laughing all the
way to the bank.




[***][5/7/85][***]
MITI'S NATIONAL PROJECT
Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI)
will start a new computer project called, "SIGMA PROJECT".
The aim of this project is to closely interconnect
universities, research laboratories and industries with
UNIX-based networking throughout Japan.  Thus it will
increase softwares' productivity, which is one of the weak
points of Japanese computer industries.  The host computer
will provide various programs and databases with technical
information.  The operating system, nicknamed as "SIGMA OS"
is based on UNIX SYSTEM V with the features of Berkeley's
version, Japanese language and image processing.

[***][5/7/85][***]
JAPANESE OPERATING SYSTEM -- TRON
Do the Japanese like "PROJECTS"?  May be, "YES".  The group
headed by Dr.Ken Sakamura, University of Tokyo, has been
designing their original operating systems.  One of their
OS, called "The Real-Time Operating System Nucleus", has
been already in practical use at NEC's V-series as I (Industrial)
TRON.  Their next projects are to develop B(Business)TRON
and H(Home)TRON.  Among others, the general features of BTRON,
which is micro users' main interest, were announced recently.
BTRON aims at a personal computer's work-station.  Five major
Japanese computer makers have been involved in this(BTRON's)
project.  Portable micro BTRON has a super efficient kanji
processing feature, and it resembles Macintosh.  But it will
have original architecture with a 3.5" FD, the minimum memory
of 512KB, a 640x200-dot display, a built-in modem and LAN feature.
BTRON is expected to be officially announced by the end of 1985.
The TRON chips will be soon produced in the form of one-chip OS.

[***][5/7/85][***]
ANOTHER BLOW TO MSX MANUFACTURERS
ASCII Corp., the exclusive distributor of Microsoft Inc. in the
Far East, will release games for Nintendo's "Family Computer"
through its subsidiary company MIA in June.  Also, ASCII's
publishing department is issuing a book intended for family
computer users.  These moves have been causing MSX manufacturers
a great deal of confusion and disappointment because of the fact
that MSX machines and Nintendo's Family Computer have been
intensely competing with each other for the top share in the
retailer's market.  Some of the Japanese MSX manufacturers are now
reluctant to take part in MSX II due to the forementioned acts of
ASCII Corp, sources say. Who will follow the "leader" with no
consistency and no principle?

[***][5/7/85][***]
STANDARDIZATION OF JAPANESE UNIX
The draft of a standardization plan for Japanese processing format
of UNIX, completed by Japanese domestic computer developers and
university's research groups, was handed over to AT&T's subsidiary
company "ATT UNIX Pacific".  Now AT&T will start developing a
standard Japanese UNIX.  7 bits are used to produce one character
in UNIX.  While 16 bits are needed to produce single Japanese
character since the fonts are more complicated.  Until recently,
many Japanese manufacturers had been adapting Japanese to UNIX.
Eventually, this draft will be regarded as the standard Japanese UNIX,
and thus it will give positive stimulation to the UNIX market.

[***][5/7/85][***]
NEW TACTICS FOR MAC'S SALES
CANON, the Japanese distributor of Apple computers, will start
providing Macinosh's education course through mail correspondence
in July.  This course aims at medical doctors for the sales
promotion of the Macintosh.  Besides CANON, there're some other
parties, such as rental shops and software houses, which will be
in this plan.  The content of the course will be to provide
practical knowledge of using the Macintosh for "carte management",
"calculation of health insurance", "prescription of medicine" etc.

[***][5/7/85][***]
VIDEOTEX WAR -- PART 1
Two major videotex systems have been engaging in a battle in Japan:
those are CAPTAIN of NTT and TERIDON(Canada's videotex) of major
Japanese trading companies such as Mitsui Bussan.  NTT has gathered
approx. 330 information providers through CAPTAIN SERVICE, one of
NTT's subsidiary companies. Taking the advantage as a common carrier,
NTT adapted identical method of collecting fees as the payment of
telephone charges in order to make their ends meet.  Mitsui
Bussan's TERIDON(of NAPLPS system) contends to get the position
as the information provider for shopping in major Japanese cities.
About 130 terminals of TERIDON will be placed around shopping
areas in Shibuya Ward in Tokyo, and they will provide a shopping
guide starting at the end of May.

[***][5/7/85][***]
VIDEOTEX WAR --PART 2
Both NTT and Mitsui Bussan seem to be seeking mutual prosperity
by developing software that's compatible with their other systems.
NTT has already developed software to convert TERIDON's data into
CAPTAIN's which will be announced at the next CCITT meeting,
according to insiders.  However, development of the software to
convert data from CAPTAIN to TERIDON is being delayed. We'll keep
informing you with its further development.




[***][5/7/85][***]
IBM PC MATHEMATICS FAULT
How far should you rely on the accuracy of your IBM-PC
software?  You may be running risks by treating it as 100 per
cent accurate or so says George Rose of Delf Computer Systems in
the UK.  Rose claims to have unearthed a phenomenon which could
be causing thousands of programmers a headache.  He says that
the standard subtraction routine on the PC, supplied by
Microsoft, should not be relied on.  The sum 23.45 minus 20,
carried out with real numbers, yields not 3.45 but 3.450001 !
The only way to avoid this, it seems, is to do the calculation
with an 8087 math processor or by using double-length numbers.
Most users, however, as Rose points out, don't have the 8087,
and double numbers are slow and uneconomical.  Rose asked Intel
for comments, and was told that the routine Intel supplies with
the 8088 is quite correct, so he thinks that Microsoft has done
something to upset it.  He conjectures that the arithmetic done
in 32 bits is being truncated instead of rounded before being
moved back into 24 bits.  Microsoft say they are looking into
it.  Comment has been sought from the UK's National Computing
Centre, whose Eric Bagshaw says, "To be safe with calculations,
you should use integers, but possibly a lot of people don't
know this."

[***][5/7/85][***]
UK BANKERS BEGIN TO DOUBT EFT
Senior bankers in the UK are "disappointed" by the returns from
their billion-pound investments in new technology.  They see no
lasting competetive advantages and no economic benefits in
terms of services or costs, finds a report published this week
in the UK.  The report, published by accountancy firm Touche
Ross and Co, warns that banks will lose out to their
competitors if they fail to use the new technologies to market
their services effectively.  Focusing on six countries--the US,
UK, France, Italy, West Germany and Canada--the report
concludes:

-o- A convergence of financial services from building societies
and other money handling institutions is "inevitable".

-o- Some bank branches will be replaced by "lobby banks" with
online machines and a few on staff who sell financial services.

-o- Electronic funds transfer at point of sale (EFT-POS) will
be widely available by 1990.

-o- The demand for home banking will be reduced by developments
in EFT-POS.

The report's major conclusion warns banks to ensure that they
use technology wisely, and "lead, and not be led by
technology".

CONTACT: The Impact of Technology on Banking (3 pounds and 50
pence), Department B15, Touche Ross & Co., Hill House, 1 Little
New Street, London EC4A 3TR, United Kingdom

[***][5/7/85][***]
COMPUTERISED HEALTH CARE GOES LIVE
Here in the UK (in case you didn't know (smile), we have a
National Health Service funded out of our taxes (ugh!).  One
health region, the Northwestern, had its first phase of an $11
million pound computerisation project go "live" last week.  The
hardware list is really impressive (by UK standards) and
involves 36 micros, 2,000 VDU's, 1,000 printers and 60 micro
clusters.  Two major UK suppliers are involved: Microdata
will install the Integrated Personnel System (IPS), and British
Medical Data Systems, a DEC OEM, which install the patient
administration system.  The IPS, it is claimed, will enable
managers to make better use the 74,000 employees who cost the
local health authority 70 per cent of it's 809 million pound
budget.

[***][5/7/85][***]
NEW UK COMMODORE BOSS FACES UPHILL TASK
Nick Bessey, Commodore's new UK manager, outlined proposals to
revive the company's growth in the UK last week in the wake
of the reported 90 per cent downturn in the US division's
profits.  In the UK, Commodore's dominance (if one can call it
that) of the marketplace has drifted from 32 to 27 per cent
in the year October 1983 to 1984 (source: Audits of Great
Britain Ltd.).  In addition, the company's strongest offering
over here is the aging C64, now long in the tooth but not
discredited by the *heavy* price discounting that has damaged
sales of the newer C16 and Plus 4 which currently stand at 80
and 200 pounds respectively.  "We established a platform of
growth elsewhere in 1984 but not in the UK," said Bessey.  He
blames the lack of a solid corporate strategy on bumper
sales during 1983 when Commodore's world sales rose 86 per
cent to $1.27 billion.  Senior managers are continuing to leave
Commodore UK (the latest is marketing manager David Gerrard)
and Bessey has fused the marketing and consumer divisions.

[***][5/7/85][***]
PSION LAUNCHES EUROPEAN OFFENSIVE
UK software "purveyor" Psion is launching a major European
offensive with its Psion Xchange suite of software. Not
familiar with it?  You soon will be, as Sir Clive Sinclair's
68000 based QL is due to be shipped in the US "real soon now".
Launching 'Xchange International', chairman and founder, David
Potter said that the suite was currently available in a French
language edition with German, Italian and Spanish versions on
the way.  "This is the first integrated product written in
French for the French market," said the Psion chief.  He
continued, "We've designed Xchange for the European market and
are preparing a US edition, although this involves a long
translation process.  We'll worry about the American market
later."  Xchange, for those of you who haven't seen this amazing
(but then, aren't they all?) suite of programs, consists of:
"Quill", a word processor, "Abacus", a spreadsheet, "Easel", business
graphics generator, and "Archive", the database manager.  Psion
launched Xchange in the UK last year with the introduction of
the QL and followed it up with versions for the IBM-PC, ICL's
one-per-desk and the Apricot and Victor series of computers
earlier this year.

[***][5/7/85][***]
COMPUTER HOLIDAYS A GO-GO
Club Mediterranee, the Paris based leisure organisation, is to
extensively revamp the style in which it offers computer-based
holidays in its 23 'holiday villages' around the world.  When
Club Med launched the first of these workshops at Kamarina,
Sicily four years ago, it soon decided to give Atari all its
business.  Atari now has 500 machines operating at the club.
"Other manufacturers have stopped knocking at our door," said
Pierre Shelma, Club Med's director of purchasing who looks
after the computer side of business.  "We are, after all, not
married to Atari.  All firms like the idea of putting their
products on show with us at our villages."   Most European
manufacturers are slowly coming awake to the fact that,
whilst orders from the Club Med organisation are relatively
small, they generate a lot of business when the holiday-makers
get back to their local computer store and think..."What
machine did I use?"  ... that is if they bothered to glance at the
logo through the mists of several 'computer cocktails'!

[***][5/7/85][***]
CRACKING FOOTBALL HOOLIGANS PART TWO
Remember last week how I told you about the Sperry/Systemsolve
system of plastic ID cards for soccer "fans" that was being
toted round the clubs in the UK?  Well, the official launch just
missed last week's copy deadline for BRITBYTES but I can now
report that ex-England Soccer captain, Emlyn Hughes, was on hand
to provide some wit and wisdom to the assembled press hacks.
Emlyn reckons that Princess 'Di' of Wales is (and I quote, if
I can hold the keyboard straight), "a right fit bird".  Leading
on with the stunning observation that, "If Maggie (Thatcher)
gets her teeth into the soccer hooligan problem, it'll soon be
solved," Hughes drew fits of laughter from the audience,
despite the fact he was being serious. Rock on Emlyn!


[***][5/7/85][***]
GRiD PORTABLES PRICES:
Prices for GRiD's line of three notebook portable computers
profiled here last week have been announced.  The standard
LCD model will sell for $4,585 (CDN), the "enhanced" LCD
for $4,855, and the plasma display version for $6,700.  All
screens have a display of 80 columns by 25 lines, and the
LCD models are expected to offer four to six hours of
operation on one battery charge.  The plasma model will
only give a couple of hours of power before needing a
recharge.

[***][5/7/85][***]
CLEANING UP OUR ACT:
Silicon chip manufacture is conducted in super-sterile
environments to avoid contamination of the components by
even the most minuscule specks of dust, with human workers
clothed in what may as well be Earth-based spacesuits.  But
one Toronto firm has begun a project to eliminate that very
source of potential chip spoilage: human interaction.
Medical estimates are that even the cleanest person sheds
as much as 600,000 particles of skin per hour--1.5 pounds
in a year.  I.P. Sharp Associates Ltd., is revising its
computer-assisted-manufacturing (CAM) software, called
"Promis"--to the end of complete automation of
integrated-circuit making.  Don Smith, vice-president of
Sharp's special systems division says "The goal is to
completely bypass human operators in the clean rooms in
which chips are made and to automate the factory."
Technicians would operate terminals outside the clean
rooms, instead of being physically present.

[***][5/7/85][***]
COMPATIBILITY BEGINS AT HOME:
Calgary, Alberta's Keyword Office Technologies announces
hardware and software which allow transfer of documents
between IBM systems previously incompatible.  IBM's 5520
series and its Displaywrite 2 computers can now be linked
via the Keyword 7000 disc-to-disc document interchange
system.  Floppy discs produced by the Keyword 7000 can be
used with other machines as well as the IBMs.  Users "can
also take advantage of the networking capabilities of IBM's
DIA/DCA amd DISOSS offerings, thereby effectively providing
revisable document interchange between non-IBM systems and
the world of IBM," said Keyword president Robert Blackshaw.

[***][5/7/85][***]
THE RETURN OF GANDALF:
After a week or two out of the news, Ottawa's Gandalf
Technologies Inc. returns to announce that it has sold a
computerised taxicab dispatch system worth $1.2-million
(CDN) to Toronto, Ontario's Diamond Taxicab Association.
Similar Gandalf systems are in use across Canada and have
been ordered for several U.S. cities.  The Gandalf system
provides both hardware and software (including a small
display terminal in each cab) which can manage a fleet of
800 cars simultaneously.  Advantages for riders will be
faster service and for drivers, the elimination of
"favouritism" by dispatchers or pirating of fares by other
cabbies.

[***][5/7/85][***]
NORTH * NYBBLES:
Kingston, Ontario's Queen's University science students
will be "strongly encouraged" to buy microcomputers and
software recommended by the college's engineering
department.  The Faculty of Applied Science will make
personal computers an integral part of its engineering
programs beginning in September, as "a standard learning
tool" for first-year students.

Telecommunication Terminals Systems (TTS) recently signed
an agreement with Walker Communications Inc. of Hauppage,
NY to be distributors of Walker's "Reliant" key telephone
systems in Canada.  TTS is a partnership of Canadian
Pacific Ltd. and Canadian National Railways of Montreal,
Quebec.

[***][5/7/85][***]
UNIQUE EDUCATION SCHEME:
Award-winning Canadian novelist Dave Godfrey ("The New
Ancestors," "Death Goes Better With Coca-Cola") has been
involved in the microcomputer revolution for some time.
Now SOFTWORDS, a company owned by Godfrey and his wife
Ellen (also a novelist), has just signed a contract to
provide the software for a unique educational project.
Godfrey will be in Shanghai this summer to initiate a
first-year computer science course that will be broadcast
by Chinese satellite to 2,000 ground stations by 1988.  The
stations, from Tibet to Mongolia, are expected to attract
100 students to each receiving dish--for a total class
enrolment of 200,000.  The contract will eventually see 8
of SOFTWORD's 27 employees in China, and is one of the
first applications outside Canada of a computer language
called NATAL specifically designed for computer learning by
the National Research Council for 16-bit microcomputers.

[***][5/7/85][***]
IN THE RED CORNER, WEIGHING 512K:
Cupertino CA's Apple Computer Company has scored a virtual
TKO in the educational computer market, and scrapped its
way to a  substantial share of home sales, but its prime
bout these days is the heavyweight business title, and that
means entering the ring with IBM.  Apple Canada Inc. of
Markham, Ontario is right in the centre of what is being
called "a sort of Coke-Pepsi situation develop[ing] in
office computers."  Major businesses in Toronto, such as
accounting firm Peat, Marwick And Associates and the
country's largest newspaper, "The Globe & Mail," have
installed significant numbers of Macintoshes in areas
previously served by IBM equipment.  "This [Apple Macintosh
office networks] is the kind of niche we need.  It means we
will finally be able to solidify our role in the office,"
Apple spokesman William Holtzman recently told "Maclean's"
magazine.  The key to Apples in the office is a small
hardware device called Appletalk, which at $80 (CDN) can
link up to 31 Macs to a central printer.  Similar IBM
networking attachments cost $1,200-$1,400.  A problem for
Apple has been delay of one major software package, Lotus
Development's "Jazz," and that concerns industry insider
Mark Stirling: "It will be critical for Apple to deliver on
its promises," he says.